Intention, volition

cetanā
Mind & theory Core — needs to be understood Stage 4 of 8

The intentional moment in every experience. "Intention is what I call action," says the Buddha — cetanā is what joins the analysis of experience to ethics.

On the path: 4 · How experience arises — What is it we call a person and a world? The five aggregates, the sense fields, contact, feeling, craving, clinging — not-self as a first introduction. → to this stage in the learning path

Related & connected

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Appears in

Across all traditions

Passages where cetanā occurs literally — in the original, and, where a German translation of the same lines exists, in German.

  • Kangyur · The Exposition of Karma · English Primary passage

    “An illustration [818] from the Śatavarga-āgama Karmavibhaṅga­sūtra : The title of this unidentified work is according to the Sanskrit versions. The Tibetan reads brgya bsdus pa’i mdo (* Śatavargasūtra ?). Lévi (1932, p. 97, n. 9) identified a partial correspondence of this citation in a passage of the Pāli Mahākammavibhaṅgasutta (MN III, 214–15). See also Kudo 2004, p. 248, n. 20.

  • Pāli commentaries · ekakanipāta-aṭṭhakathā · Pāli

    yā ca cetanā tiādīsu diṭṭhisahajātāva cetanā cetanā nāma, diṭṭhisahajātāva patthanā patthanā nāma, cetanāpatthanānaṃ vasena cittaṭṭhapanā paṇidhi nāma, tehi pana cetanādīhi sampayuttā phassādayo saṅkhārā nāma| diṭṭhi hissa, bhikkhave, pāpikā ti yasmā tassa puggalassa diṭṭhi pāpikā lāmikā| nikkhitta nti ropitaṃ| upādiyatī ti gaṇhāti| kaṭukattāyā ti idaṃ purimasseva vevacanaṃ| ‘‘vaṇṇagandharasūpeto , amboyaṃ ahuvā pure| tameva pūjaṃ labhamāno, kenambo kaṭukapphalo|| ‘‘pucimandaparivāro, ambo te dadhivāhana| mūlaṃ mūlena saṃsaṭṭhaṃ, sākhā sākhā nisevare|

  • Narrative literature · 108 Buddhist stotras · Sanskrit

    tameva śaraṇaṃ gantuṃ taṃ stotuṃ tamupāsitum / tasyaiva śāsane sthātuṃ nyāyyaṃ yadyasti cetanā //

  • Jaina scriptures · Jaina Sūtras I: Ācārāṅga & Kalpa Sūtra (SBE 22) · English

    (6) About this the Revered One has taught 1 I.e. in a permanent soul, different from the body. This is said against the Aarvakas. ? [. e. the plurality of souls, not in one all-soul, as the Vedántins. > Kamma (karma) is that which darkens our intellect, &c. Its result is the suffering condition of men, its cause is action (kiriya, kriy4). : * 'The different tenses employed in these sentences imply, ac- cording to the commentators, the acknowledgment of the reality of time, as past, present, future. ? Kamma-samárazbha. Kamma has been explained above.

  • Indian tantras · Mahāsaṃnipātaratnaketudhāraṇīsūtra, 1-6, 10-11 · Sanskrit

    vijñāna vartatendriyeṣu vidyutā yathā nabhe anātmakāśca sarve sparśavedanāpi cetanā / yoniśo nirīkṣya kiṃcidasti naiva dravyatā saṃmohito hi bālavargo yantravat pravartate // Rkp_3.52 //

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